Citi Open: Early rain delays make way for late night drama

Rain halted the beginning of play more than three and a half hours after the scheduled time, but that provided for some fantastic late night tennis.

With rain delaying the start of matches until after 5:30 PM local time, it was set to be a long night at the Citi Open. Another light sprinkle came but did not suspend play like it has been throughout the week. Past the morning hours of 3:00 AM, the final match of the day on Stadium Court ended with Andy Murray getting past Marius Copil in a marathon.

It was another three-set classic for the Brit who already has seen him go the distance with Mackenzie McDonald and Kyle Edmund and will now face Alex De Minaur in the quarterfinals.

De Minaur let out a De MinROAR after winning two matches last night (Noel Alberto/VAVEL USA)

Two A Days Were In Full Swing

Players like De Minaur and Andrey Rublev won two matches yesterday, finishing off their second round matches which were suspended from Wednesday evening. The Australian defeated Steve Johnson with Rublev knocking out Tommy Paul.

The one other person who played two singles matches was Noah Rubin. The American defeated his countryman John Isner to notch a showdown with Rublev who proved a little too much for him.

The Zverev Brothers did double duty as well. They opened up Thursday night, playing against each other on Stadium and then picked up a win together in doubles to continue their solid run.

Late Finishes

Murray had the latest finish past three in the morning, but other matches before him had some late endings as well. Naomi Osaka was upset by Magda Linette in a match that went well past midnight. Osaka's loss now makes the top four seeds out of the tournament following the withdrawal of Caroline Wozniacki and the losses of Sloane Stephens and Ekaterina Makarova.

Lucas Pouille and Denis Kudla found themselves embroidered in a battle against each other on a Match Court 2, a court with no cameras. Despite that, it was an electric atmosphere with the one set of bleachers and fans trying to edge on the local boy over the Frenchman. Kudla did get the job done in the end as he will meet Rublev to kick off the night session today.